John Kerry’s first speech: Spare State the budget ax

John Kerry’s first public speech as secretary of state was short on foreign policy vision and long on calls to spare the State Department and U.S. diplomatic engagement abroad from the budget showdown under way in Washington.

In a 50-minute address delivered Wednesday to students and faculty at the University of Virginia, Kerry railed at the broad spending cuts set to take place early next month and warned that skimping on America’s budget for diplomacy would hurt the country over the long haul.

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“I’m fully aware that the biggest challenge to American foreign policy anywhere is in the hands not of diplomats, but of policymakers in Congress,” Kerry said. “In these days of the looming budget sequester, that everyone actually wants to avoid — or most — we cannot be strong in the world unless we’re strong at home. … Let’s reach a responsible agreement that prevents these senseless cuts.”

Kerry also argued that the funding uncertainty and the potential for on-again off-again spending cuts will diminish U.S. influence.

“We have to keep going. We can’t afford the kind of delay and disruption that stands on the horizon in Washington,” Kerry warned. “There is no pause button on the future. We cannot choose when we want to stop or restart our global responsibilities.”

Kerry noted that, despite widespread perceptions that the U.S. devotes a big slice of its spending to foreign aid, the foreign affairs budget totals a little more than 1 percent of federal outlays.

“No investment that we make that is as small as this investment puts forward such a sizable benefit for ourselves and for our fellow citizens of the world,” Kerry declared. “We’re not talking about pennies on the dollar. We’re talking about one penny, plus a bit.”

Kerry, who resigned from the Senate this month after 18 years in office, blamed his fellow lawmakers for feeding the public’s view that the U.S. spends large sums on foreign aid.

“As a recovering politician, I can tell you that nothing gets a crowd clapping faster in a lot of places than saying, ‘I’m going to Washington to get them to stop spending all that money over there,’” Kerry said.

“If you’re looking for an applause line, it’s about as guaranteed an applause line as you can get. But guess what? It does nothing to guarantee our security.”

The new secretary of state seemed eager to enlist his audience in the fight to maintain spending on foreign affairs and suggested the budget impasse could be used to build public support for U.S. diplomacy.

“If were going to seize this budget crisis as the great opportunity that it can be, we cant shy away from telling this story to members of Congress to the American people and the world,” Kerry said.

The former senator also lamented the lack of a powerful domestic lobby for U.S. diplomatic, humanitarian and development efforts abroad.

“Unfortunately. the State Department doesn’t have our own Grover Norquist pushing a pledge to protect it. We don’t have millions of AARP seniors who send in their dues and rally to protect America’s investments overseas,” Kerry noted.

Kerry also repeatedly struck a chord common on President Barack Obama’s trips abroad during his first-term: that U.S. diplomacy is aimed at creating jobs here in the United States.

“It’s not just about whether we’ll be compelled to send our troops to another battle but whether we’ll be able to send our graduates into a thriving workforce,” Kerry said.

Kerry is set to embark Sunday on his first foreign trip as secretary of state: a 10-day journey to Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. He said little Wednesday about his agenda for that trip but mentioned broad goals of warding off extremism and combating global warming.